The SixArmed, SixLegged Battery
by Kaesteranya
Summary: Drabbles/fictions/shorts revolving around the Abe, Mihashi and Haruna threesome. Gay whether you squint or not. Occasionally features other characters and their take on the matter. NOTE: I moved some of my older shorts into this set.
1. In the sunlight

**In the sunlight**

_Title taken from the 31 Days theme for April 2, 2007._

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What Takaya Abe remembered best about Haruna was the image of him pitching, even beyond the bruises, beyond the arguments and beyond the many not-so-little betrayals. Off the mound, Haruna was the bundle of gangly limbs, impossible tallness and hot air that created a teenaged baseball player with an attitude problem. When Haruna was on the mound, however, something changed in him. All the skill and negativity dispersed throughout his body moved outward, pushing into the extremities of his limbs, coiling within the legs that rooted him to dirt, and the arm that aimed to shoot for the sky.

The pitch always happened too fast for anyone else to fully study it, but because they had been a battery, Abe was able to take the pieces of the whole from many different pitches and play them backward in slow motion memory. He alone saw the interplay of talent, skill and musculature rippling up the legs, through the spine, into the shoulder and down the other boy's arm, transferred into a baseball by the touch of his palm and fingertips. He alone caught that small quirk of the lips, the flash of heat in those eyes, the tension and the sweat of the moment cast across the horizon.

He did not like to think about it much, but Abe figured that the pitch might have been the reason why he had tried to stay on with Haruna for that long. It was not because of the pitch itself, or of what it could do for the team. It was because through the pitch, Haruna was drenched in light, made clean by color and brilliance.


	2. Untrodden ways

**Untrodden ways**

_Title taken from the 31 Days theme for November 4, 2006._

* * *

Abe sometimes found himself walking down strange routes on his way home, whenever he happened to go on his own after baseball practice: his mind would wander and he'd tune out for a bit and suddenly he'd look up and find himself at this and that sports shop, this and that newsstand, this and that street corner. Old places, familiar places. Streets he used to follow Haruna down as the pitcher ambled along or take a bike through after practice, with him at the back and Haruna on the handles. The rhythm of one's body was a hard thing to disrupt, and apparently, some part of him still held on tight to this particular part.

It was always disconcerting, finding one's self in a place where one could turn and remember the small nothings and easy conversation, sun baked pavement and infectious laughter. Abe might have regretted the way things ended if only for the memories they left behind, but regret would mean that he still cared somehow and that was something that he never wanted to admit to.


	3. Speaking of Cao Cao

**Speaking of Cao Cao**

"_Speaking of Cao Cao" is apparently the Chinese equivalent of the Western phrase "speak of the devil…". On another note, this is partially inspired by the fanon theories of Drae, a very talented writer for this fandom._

* * *

Haruna's mother still called every now and then, and those calls always lasted for at least an hour. She and Abe's mother had grown close – there really wasn't any way around it, given the fact that their sons had been a battery. That they had more than a few things in common was a bonus.

Takaya wasn't often home when the calls came in, so his mom always made sure to wave to him and attempt to drag him over when he did happen to come around. Since she never succeeded, she would use family dinner as an opportunity to fill Takaya in on what his old pitcher was up to. Takaya made it a point to show that he wasn't interested and that it was silly of his mother to even _think_ that he was now that he was on another team and in another school, but he listened to every word she said anyway.


	4. Pitching at birds

**Pitching at birds**

_The title for this piece is taken from the 31 Days theme for March 30, 2008. This could be viewed as the companion piece to "In the sunlight".  
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* * *

Mihashi had felt something other than fear and admiration when he had seen Haruna pitch that day, when Nishiura had watch Musashino Dai's game as part of their 'training'. In spite of the bullying at Mihoshi, his love for baseball had never really faded – even in his lowest times and when giving up had seemed like the best decision he could possibly make, it had been unbearably hard for him to ever let go of the ball. Still, pitching was not an act of release for Mihashi; most times too many thoughts jumbled around his head whenever he was standing on the mound, and he'd only blank out right before throwing the ball. Haruna's pitching, however, was so powerful and fluid. Haruna made it seem so _easy_. Watching the older boy made Mihashi think of many other things, things that weren't necessarily baseball-related and possibly the sort of things that only someone like Tajima with his penis fixation would think of. It embarrassed him, and it showed, much to his chagrin, later on when he and Abe were in bed.

What Mihashi wasn't entirely aware of was that Abe _had_ noticed his behavior much earlier, when they had still been sitting on those bleaches getting carried away by the power of Haruna's pitch and their own personal fears for the upcoming season. It had been impossible not to notice the glazed look in Mihashi's eyes, or the way he clasped his hands together a little too tightly as he traced ball after ball, swing after swing. Haruna had that sort of effect on people and it was possibly what Abe hated/liked about his old pitcher the most. He would know best: it had used to bug him the same way.


	5. The smell of spring

**The smell of spring**

_Written for a prompt from a friend: "The spring wind doesn't stop blowing / and your voice comes back to me". The title's taken from the 31 Days theme for April 1, 2008._

* * *

_"__Senpai!"_

After nearly an hour of searching and listening to the rants of the teammates that he encountered along the way, Abe finally found Haruna somewhere on the edge of the school's property, lying underneath a tree with the latest issue of _Shounen Jump_ open on his face and his limbs akimbo. They were out where the wind was the nicest, where every whiff sent tree leaves and wish seeds flying all over the place.

"_Senpai_, we've been looking all over for you."

"Tch, what's the rush? They don't need us around all the time."

It was hard to stay angry at Haruna for some reason; whether it was the scenery or the fact that his pitcher was right, Abe couldn't say for sure. Whatever it was, he was obligated to drag his teammate back on pain of death (or at least some horrendous and no doubt annoying punishment from their coach).

"_Senpai—"_

Haruna cut him off by sealing his lips with a kiss. Abe found himself pulled into the older boy's lap in the next minute, with any hope of escape cut off by possessive arms and a chin nestled quite neatly on top of his head.

"We can go later," the pitcher declared. "It's going to be more of the same today anyway."

"U-um. Abe?"

Abe lifted the baseball magazine away from his face and found Mihashi kneeling down on the grass beside him with the sort of look that roughly translated into "I've actually been here for more than ten minutes but I was too shy/embarrassed/stupid to speak up sooner". He was becoming increasingly familiar with Mihashi-isms these days.

"What is it?"

"N-nothing! Were you asleep?"

"Not really."

Nishiura's catcher made a neutral noise as he sat up; he felt his blood pressure spike just a bit when he noted how Mihashi backed up even more than necessary to give him space, but it wasn't enough for him to go postal. He made a mental note to congratulate himself for his patience later.

"M-maybe we should go back already, A-Abe-kun…"

"I like it here."

"Oh…"

"Unless you want to go back?"

Mihashi vehemently shook his head. Abe propped himself up against the back of the tree and looked up, at the patches of sky and clouds caught between the branches. He pretended not to notice when Mihashi inched over, after ten full minutes, to join him. The kiss wasn't needed; holding hands was enough.


	6. As I break this chair

**As I break this chair…**

_The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for August 15, 2008. Spoilers for Haruna and Abe's backstory._

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Whenever Haruna throws another tantrum and storms off during practice, or whenever Nishiura comes up in this or that discussion and Haruna gets that really weird scrunched-up I'm Using My Brain and Not Enjoying It look on his face, Akimaru finds himself remembering that one time the Nishiura kids and their boobsy captain came around to watch a game. He remembers looking up in the middle of a conversation to his partner abandoning him, taking off across a green field at full speed to speak to (torment the hell out of) Abe Takaya, his old pitcher. His old punching bag.

Admittedly, he doesn't know all that much about Abe beyond the statistics. Haruna likes to think of himself as a creature of the present and as such, he never, ever talks about the way things used to be before Akimaru came unto the team – the few times Akimaru managed to get something out of his pitcher were a result of serious blackmail, or sheer luck. He's got nothing to rely on but a handful of observations, because Haruna's body language is ridiculously easy to read. Once was all he needed: one moment to see a light that's never there when Haruna was talking to that kid, one moment to hear a tone in Haruna's voice that he only ever heard before Haruna's knee was ruined almost for good.

Oddly, Abe Takaya is also ridiculously easy to read, and it is because of his obvious hatred and the way it very obviously doesn't make sense to Haruna that Akimaru's sometimes tempted to take him by the collar, shake him around and tell him that fuck damn it, he's the lucky one. He doesn't have the right to complain (to hate), when he's the first, the best, the impossible standard that someone's forced to measure up against, whether he likes it or not.

It'd be so much easier if he could drag the brat back in time and show him the hundred quiet little ways that Haruna broke apart without him around or maybe sit Abe down and talk to him about what it's like to know you're always going to be second best, but that sort of stuff only happens in kiddy comics and as such, Akimaru's forced to shut his trap and deal by pretending he doesn't notice a thing.


End file.
